


Elevator

by Adventures_in_Writing



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: M/M, Tuckington - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 19:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3822664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adventures_in_Writing/pseuds/Adventures_in_Writing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You know that thing that happens when you like someone but you don’t want them to know because then things will get weird, so you kind of start avoiding them so you don’t screw up and wreck your friendship?</p>
<p>Yeah?</p>
<p>That’s happened to me too. Quite recently, in fact.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Elevator

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt received on Tumblr: "Wash realizes that he's head over heels for Tucker and starts avoiding him. unfortunately (or fortunately), tho, both of them get stuck in an elevator for 12 hours. together. with Wash's embarrassing crush."
> 
> I don't often write in first person, so this was an interesting change.

* * *

People say that love hits them like a train moving at a hundred miles an hour. It hits them hard and fast and completely out of nowhere. I’ve never experienced that. For me, it starts off slowly, and I never notice it happening until one day I’m doing something with whoever it is I’ve been friends with and think, in the words of one of my best friends: “Oh, fuckberries.” Then I kind of look back on our friendship so far and wonder how the hell did I not realise I liked them? I mean, texting at all hours of the day and night? Always dropping whatever it is you’ve planned on doing when they want to hang out? Thinking about their amazing smile, or cute laugh or just anything about them?

It makes me feel like a moron when I finally figure it out.

I kinda wish love hit me like a train because then I wouldn’t have this problem.

You know that thing that happens when you like someone, but you don’t want them to know because then things will get weird, so you kind of start avoiding them so you don’t screw up and wreck your friendship?

Yeah?

That’s happened to me too. Quite recently, in fact.

After what happened with Connie, I decided to not let romantic feelings screw up a good friendship. So you can’t blame me for pulling back when I started to like my best friend, Tucker.

We would hang out all the time and if, for whatever reason, we couldn’t be together, we’d be messaging or chatting on the phone. We’d share food when we were out and randomly give each other presents. Sure, we’d bicker a fair bit, but that’s pretty much how we interacted and we’d always make up after. I really liked playing with Tucker’s dreads and he’d always sprawl all over me of we were sitting on a lounge together.   
People often joked that we were as bad as Grif and Simmons but we’d both deny it. Tucker a little more so than me because by that point I’d kind of started wondering. I didn’t want to make things weird. Tucker always talked about girls, and Tucker was the first guy I’d liked so things were a bit awkward for me.

I obviously didn’t just cut him out of my life completely. I was just…a little busier than usual when he wanted to hang out. Not all the time, mind you. I made sure we still chatted and saw each other. Just, not every single day. Or every second day. I still thought about him though. I think he was on my mind more than he was when we were hanging out together, if that’s even possible.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I spoke to Tucker, actually. How did I last two weeks without speaking to him you ask? I’d requested an intervention. My friend York has to make sure I’m too preoccupied to think about contacting Tucker. To York’s credit, he’s doing a fantastic job, though he doesn’t really agree with how I’m going about this.

Which brings me to my current dilemma: stuck in an elevator for the past ten hours, seventeen minutes, forty three seconds and counting with my crush whom I’ve been avoiding recently.

A pornographic scene that suddenly appears in a movie you’re watching with your parents when you’re seventeen doesn’t even begin to describe how awkward this situation is.

“Goddamn it I really have to pee…”

It’s the first thing Tucker has said to me since the elevator screeched to a halt ten hours, thirty three minutes and four seconds ago.

“Maybe if you call out the firefighters could throw you a bottle or something. Not ideal, but definitely better than peeing your pants.”

"I think I can hold it.”

The firefighters can’t open the doors enough to haul us out and they needed to wait for electricians and repair men to come fix the cables and reconnect the electricity. It’s a really good thing that these elevators have safety brakes on them because otherwise we’d be pancakes.

“I hope so.”

I’ve spent the past ten hours of my life worrying if Tucker was going to say anything about our recent lack of contact and just as I start to relax, he pops the question.

“Did I do something to piss you off?”

Okay, so not the question I’m expecting, but it’s close enough.

“No, why?”

Tucker laughs. “Because you’ve been avoiding me like the fucking plague, dude.”

I can’t help how I wince at his words. Although he’s laughing, I can hear the edge to his voice.

“I’ve just been a bit busy lately.”

“With what? We went from talking all the time to me not even getting a hello when I text you.”

My throat tightens, and suddenly I really want to be out of this elevator more than I already do. I glance at my watch. Only three minutes has passed since I last checked it. Clearly I still needed to work on the balance between hanging out too much and not enough. What is a good amount, anyway? What’s just right?I guess when I think about it, Tucker and I saw each other all the time before I realised I liked him. Why the hell did I need to change things? He didn’t know before, so how would he know after?

I think I’ve figuratively shot myself in the foot.

“Like I said, I was busy…”

Tucker goes quiet and I start to worry. Well, more than I already was. It’s not the kind of quiet that you get at the end of a conversation. It’s the quiet that you get when someone is thinking about how to put something in to words or if they’re trying to figure out whether to say what they’re thinking or not.

The silence drags on for a really long time and I start to fidget. Then Tucker makes a start to talk, looks at me sidelong and says something that makes my heart pretty much stop.

“Donut told you that I like you, didn’t he. God, he cannot keep a secret!

I’m pretty sure my expression is like that of a deer caught in headlights. My voice isn’t working properly and so I just make this kind of awkward, incredulous squeak.

“Oh fuck, you didn’t know…”

Now Tucker looks like he’s a deer caught in headlights and we’re both kind of just staring at each other awkwardly. I’m sure we’re both thinking “oh, fuckberries”. Tucker coined the term after all.

“You l—” I can’t bring myself to say it. Tucker likes me? Tucker likes me. I’m both unbelievably happy and yet so goddamn scared that my body is frozen and everything is kind of slow.

Tucker groans and covers his face with his hands, the picture of regret.

“Fuck,” he says, drawing out the ‘u’, “I was so sure that’s why you stopped talking to me. If that’s not the reason, then why?”

I swallow and take a breath. Regardless of what I say right now, our friendship has shifted. I think it might be in a good direction though, even if I had screwed it up a little bit.

“I like you and didn’t want to ruin our friendship…”

Tucker blinks and he looks confused. “You like me?”

I know I’m giving him an amused smile. “Hard to believe, isn’t it? How could I like a loser like you?”

“Excuse me,” Tucker says, puffing out his chest. “I am awesome. You’re the loser.”

We kind of laugh for a bit and then things get quiet. Tucker looks at me and he gives me what I can only describe as a shy smile. Tucker is never shy, so the expression throws me.

“Does this mean we can see each other again? And that you’ll start talking to me?

“I have to make up for lost time,” I smile. I’ll definitely have to make it up to Tucker somehow.

“Don’t worry, boys," One of the firefighters call out, "We just got word that the repairmen are on their way. They’ll be here within the hour.”

Tucker grumbles. We’ve been here for eleven hours six minutes and twenty one seconds. What’s another hour?

I scoot closer to Tucker and thankfully he doesn’t shift away. I figure if I like him and he likes me and we’re going to be hanging out together then it’s okay.

“So…we’re a thing now, right?” I ask. I want to be clear. I don’t want to get out of this elevator and start hanging out with Tucker again without knowing for sure.

“Do you want to be a thing? Because if you do then I can think of a way we can kill this last hour that would have been a better way to kill the past eleven…”  
He’s giving me that cheeky grin of his that he gets whenever he makes a double entendre or gets to use his ‘bow chika bow wow’ phrase and for once, I don’t grumble about it.

I can’t grumble, even if I want to, because Tucker’s lips are on mine. It’s kind of awkward because we’re sitting on the floor of a broken down elevator, but at the same time it’s everything I’ve wanted and I’m kissing him back.


End file.
